Silversea adds seasoning to sailings with S.A.L.T
From making meze in a state-of-the-art cooking studio, to ouzo-fuelled cocktails and wine tasting onshore in Cyprus, April Hutchinson finds out more about how Silversea has finally been able to roll out its full S.A.L.T experience with the debut of Silver Moon
It used to be that your copy of Silversea’s Daily Chronicles told you what to wear for the day ahead and what theatre show was on at night – these days it might tell you what meal you could be whipping up, and which wines you could be tasting onshore.
The ultra-luxury cruise line has been working on its S.A.L.T initiative for a couple of years, and was due to put the fully-fledged version of the programme onboard its latest ship, 596-passenger Silver Moon, last year. Of course, the pandemic pause put paid to that, but Silver Moon and S.A.L.T have now been well and truly launched.
The christening of the ship in July by Gaia Gaja, of Greek winemaking fame, nicely ties into this new focus of S.A.L.T, exploring the notion of what the world’s cultures and people are like via their food and drink traditions.
Standing for Sea and Land Taste, Silversea says the concept allows “travellers to use food to dive deep into the world’s richest cultures, to truly understand the soul of a destination” via new dining and interactive experiences onboard and “unique land-based experiences”.
And according to Barbara Muckermann, Silversea’s chief commercial officer, S.A.L.T is “an entire eco-system around culinary discovery” that is “very different from what the industry has been doing so far”.
Along with the Silversea team, Adam Sachs, a three-time winner of the James Beard Journalism Award and former editor-in-chief of Saveur magazine, oversees the programme to make it as engaging as possible.
I joined Silver Moon in Rhodes to see what that means in practice. The first – and perhaps most novel element – is S.A.L.T Lab, an intimate, stylish and hi-tech, hands-on cooking space with nine stations for guests, where they can cook and find out about recipes, food culture, local ingredients and experiences from visiting chefs and culinary experts that reflect the destinations a ship is sailing to.
As I was on a Mediterranean cruise around the Greek islands and Cyprus, taking a meze masterclass class in the lab with UK-based Yasmin Kahn, author of Ripe Figs: Recipes and Stories from the Eastern Mediterranean, seemed a very apt and enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours.
In the lab, the semi-circle design means everyone has a great view of the action at the front, but things are also being beamed onto two TV screens to ensure everyone can follow the steps. An array of books line the shelves and one cabinet even has some micro-greens growing, while another has a plethora of spices on display.
While David Bilsland, Silversea’s culinary trainer and chef focused on S.A.L.T, may have had years of cooking experience, including teaching at Le Cordon Bleu London, he says guests onboard certainly won’t need to be masterchefs themselves.
“They’re designed to be bite-sized classes that don’t take too long and fit well into a guest’s day,” he says. “Guests might be interested in the entire S.A.L.T programme during one voyage, or they might just dip in for some of it. We think at least a fifth of people onboard so far are engaging with it.”
Certainly – given all ingredients in the right measure in front of me – I easily managed to put together a delicious meze myself under Yasmin’s guidance; I’d be worried if I couldn’t manage to chop up some vegetables and mix things together by this stage in life.
But another class later in the voyage, Simits & Skewers: Mediterranean Streetfood – partly inspired by chef Anissa Helou – may have tested me more, covering as it did Lebanese kebabs and making simit bread; all recipes are also given to guests on handy cards to take away. There will tend to be one or two complimentary cooking classes per day in S.A.L.T Lab, along with a range of wider demonstrations and talks held in the ship’s beautiful Venetian Lounge.
I have to say though, I’ve always preferred eating food to cooking it: lockdown did not make a new chef of me, and nor did this cruise. But of course, on a Silversea cruise that’s no problem. In fact, the S.A.L.T Kitchen dining experience was one of my favourite meals of my six-night sailing, and I was lucky enough to dine with Yasmin.
Like all the new S.A.L.T elements on the ship, the restaurant is designed by London-based interiors firm HBA, and would not have been out of place in a trendy London neighbourhood, with enticing design, table details and buzzing atmosphere.
S.A.L.T Kitchen is a completely new restaurant concept for Silversea, with a daily changing menu based on the port of call – or countries being sailed by, if at sea – alongside a regional menu that remains the same throughout the voyage, for example, dishes inspired by the wider Eastern Mediterranean when I was onboard. There’s also a regionally inspired wine list.
You could also go for a divine pre- or post-dinner cocktail at S.A.L.T Bar, where much mixology magic happens, using local inspirations and liquor. Again, HBA’s atmospheric, intimate interiors made this feel like a secret spot in a top fashionable hotel.
Regular Silversea cruisers might notice S.A.L.T. Kitchen replaces the space typically occupied by Indochine on some ships, or Teppanyaki on Silver Muse. The S.A.L.T. Lab takes the previous place of high-end dining experience La Dame, which is repositioned to a new spot on deck eight on Silver Moon and expanded, almost tripling its previous capacity from 24 guests to around 60.
Deck four on Silver Moon is home to all three S.A.L.T “hub” custom-made spaces and also on this level is Kaiseki, for specialist Japanese cuisine, also created by HBA to give beautifully designed surroundings.
On this level, guests will also find Atlantide, what could be considered the more traditional main dining space (a la carte breakfast, lunch and dinner) on a cruise ship.
I also tried La Terrazza for delicious buffet (but now served to you by staff under new Covid-19 protocols) breakfasts and lunches and when it was transformed to an elegant a la carte Italian restaurant at night. Then there were also visits to Spaccanapoli for amazing all-day pizzas, and The Grill for my vegan burger fix some other lunchtimes.
This area becomes the Hot Rocks experience at night, while other options on board are Silver Note (tapas style small plates and jazz vibes) and another favourite spot of mine was the beautiful little Arts Café, with contemporary decor and shelves lined with arty tomes – and the best coffee on the ship in my opinion...
Bar-wise, there is also Pool Bar, Panorama Lounge, Dolce Vita (the main deck five place to hang out near the lobby, reception and shore concierge desk), Observation Library and Connoisseur’s Corner.
Of course, the S.A.L.T experience is not just onboard: ports of call also have a special S.A.L.T-themed excursion, and while all guests would ordinarily benefit from one complimentary excursion per stop, S.A.L.T ones do come at an extra cost.
These might include Tastes of the Cyclades: Food & Flavours of the Beautiful Islands in Paros, or Heart and Soul of Greek Cooking: a Cretan Culinary Adventure when calling at Heraklion, or the one I took – History of Wine in Cyprus with wine expert and author Florentia Kythreotou, which started from our stop in the port of Limassol.
My S.A.L.T afternoon ashore in Cyprus started with a highly entertaining wine tasting session and tour at the Oenou Yi winery, a sleek operation with a stunning hilly location close to the village of Omodos. Discovering refreshing white wines made with Xynisteri – an indigenous grape and the main one used for wine production in Cyprus – we also heard about the country’s famous dessert wine Commandria, the production of which must follow strict production rules in order to be classified as such.
This was followed up by a stroll through the beautiful, sleepy village of Omodos itself, along cobbled backstreets to discover an old wine press.
And then – watching two incredibly jolly village ladies make the traditional grape desserts of palouze (somewhere between a jelly and a custard) and shushukos, where almonds or walnuts are made into thick threads and dipped in the hot palouze paste to make giant necklaces which are then hung to solidify. It was quite a spectacle.
You either eat it in little sweets, or take the potion away to have as a kind of warm grape custard – it tastes better than I’m making it sound. And all that was topped off with a meal at a local taverna, perched high in the village with a jovial atmosphere as we consumed more meze and local wine while a sunset crept over us.
Bilsland agrees that we’ve already been experiencing a massive food revolution in terms of people’s deeper interest in all types of cuisine, while at-home cooking during pandemic lockdowns has only served to heighten people’s interest in food – S.A.L.T’s first official full on-ship roll-out could not be better timed in that case.
And during the class, Khan told me her roots lie in northern Iran and explained how meze comes from a Persian word “maza”, meaning “to relish” – and whether they’re a dedicated foodie, or a curious beginner, guests will certainly relish every part of their S.A.L.T journey.
Where are Silversea’s ships now?
Silver Moon was actually Silversea’s first ship to enter service in June, following the pandemic pause, and will spend the rest of the summer in the Med, sailing out of Athens and including Greek islands such as Paros, Patmos, Rhodes, Crete and Mykonos, as well as Cyprus on itineraries.
The line’s newest expedition ship Silver Origin is in the Galapagos, and Silver Muse is in Alaska, while Silver Shadow is now cruising around Iceland.
Silver Spirit starts sailings from the UK in September and expeditions should start in Antarctica later this year, including onboard Silver Wind, which is currently being refurbished and converted to ice class.
The next ship to have the full S.A.L.T proposition onboard will be Silver Dawn, which should be delivered in November, and will also feature Silversea’s new wellness programme, Otium.
• For more insight on what it's like to cruise now, changes in protocols and more Silversea news, read TTG Luxury's Q&A with the line's managing director, UK & Ireland, Peter Shanks.
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